Hard drive not recognised - shows up as dvd drive

corsa59 · 10-05-2005, 07:09 AM

Weird, building a new computer, got a brand new 200gb seagate hard drive, recognises the drive during startup, if I go into setup, identifies the drive correctly, but when i tried to load windows onto the machine, it gives me the dreaded blue screen, and says it halted the system to avoid damaging the computer. Several times. Cables secure, jumpers correct.

So I take another working hard drive with windows on it, set it up as master, and new drive as slave, sytem boots perfectly, go to my computer, and shows c: drive (old drive) d: drive (new cd rom) and f: drive (dvd drive). Only problem is I dont have a dvd drive in the machine, so somehow, the pc is seeing the second hard drive as a dvd drive.... why is it so?

Tried putting another old drive in as slave, worked perfectly, tried putting an identical new 200gb drive in the machine, exactly the same error. So is it something to do with size of drive?? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Dave

**linderman** · 10-05-2005, 01:56 PM

Dave:

There is a 137 gig windows barrier which can be overcome by the addition of service pack 2 ??????

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx

and I would also look into a bios update / make sure to use the DOS based bios utility for your mobo (see mobo manual) make sure you get the most recent version of the bios update utility too for your mobo at mobo makers website / support for your mobo model / you will find the newer bios files there too

let us know how you progress / dont hesitate to ask more questions

regards

joe

**keymaker** · 10-05-2005, 04:12 PM

also post your full computer hardware specs.

corsa59 · 10-05-2005, 05:28 PM

Problem solved, some idiot had set the hard drive controller to P-ATA AND S-ATA rather than just just S-ATA (that idiot would be ME!), and when this was corrected, the drive miraculously worked! Thanks for your assistance!

The fact was mentioned about xp not being able to handle drives bigger than 137gb, and my next question is this. When xp installs, it formats the new hard drive, and it told me the drive was 131gb (i guess this is about 137gb when considering the 1000/1024 effect), and because you cant install service pack 2 until windows is up and operating, you format the hard drive, continue installing windows, and end up with a hard drive about 60 gig short.

Once you install sp2, what do you have to do to get this lost storage space back? Create a partition to use up the new space? Is there any way to repartition the drive with just one partition and NOT lose the windows installation and all the other data?

Many thanks again,

Dave

10-05-2005, 07:09 AM	#1 (permalink)
corsa59 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 2 OS: xp	Hard drive not recognised - shows up as dvd drive Weird, building a new computer, got a brand new 200gb seagate hard drive, recognises the drive during startup, if I go into setup, identifies the drive correctly, but when i tried to load windows onto the machine, it gives me the dreaded blue screen, and says it halted the system to avoid damaging the computer. Several times. Cables secure, jumpers correct. So I take another working hard drive with windows on it, set it up as master, and new drive as slave, sytem boots perfectly, go to my computer, and shows c: drive (old drive) d: drive (new cd rom) and f: drive (dvd drive). Only problem is I dont have a dvd drive in the machine, so somehow, the pc is seeing the second hard drive as a dvd drive.... why is it so? Tried putting another old drive in as slave, worked perfectly, tried putting an identical new 200gb drive in the machine, exactly the same error. So is it something to do with size of drive?? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance, Dave

10-05-2005, 01:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Dave: There is a 137 gig windows barrier which can be overcome by the addition of service pack 2 ?????? http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../winxpsp2.mspx and I would also look into a bios update / make sure to use the DOS based bios utility for your mobo (see mobo manual) make sure you get the most recent version of the bios update utility too for your mobo at mobo makers website / support for your mobo model / you will find the newer bios files there too let us know how you progress / dont hesitate to ask more questions regards joe __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

10-05-2005, 04:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
keymaker Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1,154 OS: windows xp	also post your full computer hardware specs. __________________ AVG Spybot SpywareBlaster Adware CCleaner Diskeeper ZoneAlarm

10-05-2005, 05:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
corsa59 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 2 OS: xp	Problem solved.... Problem solved, some idiot had set the hard drive controller to P-ATA AND S-ATA rather than just just S-ATA (that idiot would be ME!), and when this was corrected, the drive miraculously worked! Thanks for your assistance! The fact was mentioned about xp not being able to handle drives bigger than 137gb, and my next question is this. When xp installs, it formats the new hard drive, and it told me the drive was 131gb (i guess this is about 137gb when considering the 1000/1024 effect), and because you cant install service pack 2 until windows is up and operating, you format the hard drive, continue installing windows, and end up with a hard drive about 60 gig short. Once you install sp2, what do you have to do to get this lost storage space back? Create a partition to use up the new space? Is there any way to repartition the drive with just one partition and NOT lose the windows installation and all the other data? Many thanks again, Dave